That's like saying one of the best Dylan songs.
There's just too many to choose from to say "one of the best."
But one of the best Seinfeld episodes was when Jerry took a date to see Schindler's List.
Yada yada yada.
They started making out.
THEY MADE OUT AT SCHINDLER'S LIST?
Oh the sacrilege.
Not since Mel Brooks and The Producers had someone successfully made something funny about the Holocaust.
Marge Schott tried.
But only few have succeeded.
After all, let's be very clear here, there is nothing funny about the Holocaust.
From what people remember.
As a proud Jewish person, the Holocaust is worse than any moment in time that this world has ever experienced.
But the bottom line is the Holocaust is history.
Just a part of the past.
And that's a tragedy in itself.
Despite the bumper stickers and post cards, people have forgotten.
People have moved on.
That's what people do.
For many, the Holocaust is nothing more than a made for TV movie.
I'm not minimizing the tragedy or significance in any way shape or form.
But as we creep farther and farther away from the end of World War II, the memories will fade even more.
And so will the people who survived the wrath of Nazi Germany.
The number of Holocaust survivors still alive today is somewhere between 100,000 and 350,000.
This according to the trusty internet.
But no matter what the real number is, one thing for sure, it’s not going to go up.
Last year my daughter’s 8th grade class took a trip to Washington DC.
And as part of that trip, we visited the Holocaust Museum.
It was, BY FAR, the most emotional stop on our four-day trip.
Parents, teachers and even kids were clearly affected by what they saw.
And ten minutes after we got on the bus... the giggling started again.
I’m not sure that’s such a bad thing.
But I’m not sure it’s a good thing either.
Next year my 7th grade son will make that same trip.
But recently his class got an up close and personal introduction to the subject.
Her name is Estelle Nadel.
She is a survivor.
For 37 minutes Mrs. Nadel addressed our middle school.
She told us her story of growing up in Poland.
And the story of her father being shot to death by the Gestapo.
Along with her sister.
She told us about the time she and her brother were captured by the Nazis.
Thrown in a jail.
At the age of five.
“We knew we were going to be shot the next morning,” she said.
Matter of fact.
Like we would say, “change the channel”.
She told us about how they successfully escaped from that jail.
Barely squeezing their undernourished frames through the iron bars on the window.
Somehow landing in a friend of a friend’s attic.
An attic where “you couldn’t even stand up because the floor was too weak.”
They stayed there for two years.
Until the war ended.
She has probably shared these stories at least six million times.
But several times during her speech tears formed in her eyes.
And she wasn’t the only one.
I made a point to sit alone, in the back of the room.
So that I could listen to her every word.
While watching the reaction of the kids.
I wondered how much they would really take from it.
Her speech ended at 10:34am with what appeared to be her signature out.
“That’s my story and that’s my life.”
She then opened it up to questions.
Questions that quickly confirmed a few things.
Kids are kids.
And yes, they were paying attention.
“Are you still mad at Germany for what they did?”
“What did you do in the attic all day?”
“Have you been back to Poland?”
The questions continued.
For 18 minutes.
Not 17.
Not 19.
18.
Living in white bread suburbia, I may have been the only one in the room to pick up on that.
But I found it symbolic.
Always the journalist I went up to her after the speech and asked her if she had seen Schindler's List.
"Yes," she said. "It was the first movie of its kind I ever saw."
"It was terrible...."
Just then, before she could say any more, she stopped.
Midway through her sentence.
A group of teenage girls had come up to thank her.
And one-by-one, they hugged.
I never got the rest of the answer to my question.
But I didn’t have to.
Her mission was very much accomplished.
No comments:
Post a Comment